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For the whole of humanity, access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food has always formed one of the foundations of a just, peaceful and sustainable world. This vision stands in contrast to the reality of a world in which over a billion people lack such access. This brutal injustice is underlined when we consider that at this moment we already produce enough nutritious food to feed everyone on the planet.

Despite the goodness and bounty of God’s gifts to us in creation, so many people experience scarcity: famine, hunger, deprivation and want. At the same time, there are people in all parts of the world who suffer the effects of too much: too much salt, sugar, fat, calories. These are all dimensions of the unsustainable consumption of food. Our sense of balance and right relations seems lost and we are now experiencing a great divide between the haves and the have nots, created by the decisions we make individually as well as collectively. (Canadian Foodgrains Bank: Faith as if Food Matters).

Achieving the sustainable consumption of food requires confronting problems of both under-consumption and over-consumption. With over 1 billion people hungry or starving, the under-consumption of food is one of the world's most neglected issues. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes this situation as "a continuing travesty of the recognized fundamental human right to adequate food and nutrition, and freedom from hunger and malnutrition," especially so "in a world that has both the resources and knowledge to end this catastrophe."

These consumption patterns together with unsustainable food production and distribution patterns not only undermine health and quality of life but also have other negative environmental, social and economic impacts. Solutions are required for people to have adequate food that is sufficient, safe, nutritious and culturally acceptable.

Sustainable food consumption can be defined as access and use by all present and future generations of the food necessary for an active, healthy life, through means that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable (Jeffrey Barber, Integrative Strategies Forum). Sustainable food consumption thus implies sustainable agricultural production and distribution of food (link to page).

The need is to achieve sustainable consumption of food by all people. Take action individually or collectively by:

Assessing your own levels of consumption in light of global food security and commit to make changes in your own eating habits